Keystones: Tau Prime (27 page)

“Engage the Doppler Bubble Drive,” said Captain Andrei. Even his commanding voice seemed to betray a smile.

Just then a tendril of darkness curled out of Deklan’s pocket like a genie escaping from a lamp. Deklan’s heart sank. Stalker had been absent during the entire trip. His reappearance couldn’t herald anything good.

Stalker coalesced into human form and frowned at Deklan before looking around him. “What?” he asked. He looked around again. “Why am I here?” His face betrayed a puzzled expression rather than the dark glee he’d projected on other occasions.

Deklan was glad that the crew was distracted and hadn’t noticed anything yet. “I didn’t try to get you here,” said Deklan quietly. If Stalker hadn’t come of his own accord, the remaining options narrowed down to one man.

“I did,” declared Cheshire, who suddenly appeared to Deklan’s left next to Jamie.

The architect of so much that was complicated in Deklan’s life, Cheshire wore the same black clothes as at their last meeting, but he now exhibited a sad smile. “Jeremy,” said Cheshire, “I thought you’d want to hear this as well.”

“Hear what?” Stalker asked.

Was Stalker’s given name Jeremy? Deklan was hard-pressed to think of a less appropriate name for the man. “Where’s Susan?” he asked Cheshire. “You said that if I explored the wormhole network I’d find Susan.”

“I never promised that you’d find your friend quickly, just that you’d find her. She’s still out there.”

“Hear what?” Stalker repeated in this three-way dialogue, his voice louder and his words sharper.

Cheshire’s smile grew somber. “Welcome back, but I feel that I should warn you.” He looked at the enormous space stations displayed on the main screen. “The Terra Rings are going to explode in less than four hours.”

Deklan felt as though he were falling from a great height.

“Well, ‘explode’ is the wrong term entirely. Instead, let us say that they will be modified.”

It was always games with Cheshire—serious games, deadly games, but always games. “Modified? Modified how?” asked Deklan.

“Humanity has to leave this solar system. We’re not safe here. The Terra Rings are going to leave Earth’s orbit.”

Deklan shook his head back and forth, trying to negate Cheshire’s statement. “But we just got back,” he remonstrated. “We can’t leave yet.”

“Deklan, I’m sorry to tell you this, but your work isn’t done yet.” Cheshire winked at him and vanished.

“Who was that man?” Jamie asked in the careful tones of someone trying not to scream.

“He’s the one who helped me to escape from Earth.” Deklan didn’t bother with mentioning the unorthodox methods that Cheshire had employed. “He also assisted me after the parasites attacked
Serenity
.”

Jamie cleared her throat. “But you said that you’d just escaped on your own.”

“Would you have thought I was sane if I’d said otherwise?”

Their awkward conversation was interrupted by an urgent announcement by one of the pilots. “Captain, we have an incoming transmission.”

Cheshire’s face appeared on every screen on the bridge. “Hello, citizens of Earth, citizens of the Terra Rings, and my fellow survivors. Seven weeks ago your, my, and our lives were irrevocably changed by The Sweep. They’re going to change again today. In four hours the Terra Rings are going to fulfill their secondary purpose.” The video feed pulled back and showed three-dimensional holographic schematics alongside him.

The schematics were of three spinning rings encircling a world. The rings fractured and broke apart, becoming a cloud of tumbling metal. “Don’t be alarmed,” interjected Cheshire’s voice. “The rings aren’t going to explode, but they are going to separate into spaceships.” The schematic zoomed down to a small section of the chaos and revealed ships by the hundreds maneuvering in close quarters but avoiding collision.

“These ships will take us through the wormholes. We will encounter many dangers, but we also will find new homes for humanity.”

About the Author

Alexander McKinney first discovered his love of Fantasy with ‘Dragons of Autumn Twilight.’
 
From there he proceeded to devour every novel of Dragonlance mythology that he could find.
 
His lifelong obsession with the genre can undoubtedly be laid at the feet of Margaret Weis & Tracey Hickman.

Branching out from medieval worlds took time, but eventually a dearth of locally available titles required the radical move to the genre of Science Fiction.
 
There, lying in wait was a host of glittering treasures: Herbert, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein.
 
Authors who only sunk the hook deeper.

Alexander lives in the Bahamas and proves that insanity goes hand in hand with a passion for writing as the pursuit of new stories frequently interferes with the pursuit of enjoying beaches and sunshine, a choice that he is certain most people would not make.